Iranian strikes have disabled 17% of Qatar’s liquefied natural gas export capacity, Qatari Minister of Energy and QatarEnergy CEO Saad al-Kaabi said.
Two of Qatar’s 14 LNG trains and one of its to gas-to-liquids sites were damaged in Iranian strikes this week, al-Kaabi told Reuters. Around 12.8 million tons of LNG per year will be unavailable for three to five years during repairs, causing roughly US$$20 billion in lost revenue.
“I never in my wildest dreams would have thought that Qatar would be - Qatar and the region - in such an attack, especially from a brotherly Muslim country in the month of Ramadan, attacking us in this way,” al-Kaabi said.
QatarEnergy, which is state-owned, declared force majeure on all LNG exports earlier in March after Iranian strikes on its Ras Laffan industrial hub. Ras Laffan includes the world’s largest LNG plant, which represents around 20% of global supply.
The company halted all gas liquefaction two weeks ago, and has been unable to resume after Ras Laffan was again damaged this week.
“For production to restart, first we need hostilities to cease,” said al-Kaabi.
QatarEnergy will likely also declare force majeure on long-term contracts for up to five years, including on LNG supplies intended for China and South Korea.
Oil prices continued to rise today, with Brent crude trading 1.2% higher at $108.70 per barrel as of 9:55 am AEDT.
